1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a food container which is provided with a ladle holding structure that can hold a ladle firmly in position inside the food container.
2. Description of Related Art
Pots are a kitchen utensil used to cook stews or soups. A pot is usually used with a ladle, which is a long-handled spoon with a deep bowl-like front end, for conveying the stew or soup in the pot into a dish for serving to the diner. By careless handling, a short-handled ladle might fall out of hand and dip into the stew. Since the handle is usually held by hand, the ladle submerged in the stew could cause contamination to the stew.
These problems of the conventional stew pot will be depicted illustratively in the following with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a conventional stew pot which has the disadvantages mentioned above. This stew pot includes a container 1 for containing the stew and a lid 5 for covering on the top of the container 1. On the top edge of the container 1, a groove 2 is formned circumferentially on the top edge of the container 1 for receiving the edge of the lid 5 when the lid 5 covers on the top of the container 1. A ladle 4 is used to convey the stew in the container 1 to, for example, a bowl for serving the stew to the diner.
If the ladle 4 has a short handle, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the ladle 4 would usually slip and thus dip into the stew after the diner puts the ladle 4 back into the container 1. It is very inconvenient to get the ladle 4 out of the stew and use it again for making servings.
On the other hand, if the ladle 4 has a long handle, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the rear part of the ladle 4 will be exposed to the outside of the container 1 when the bowl part of the ladle 4 is placed on the inside of the container 1. This will cause the lid 5 unable to cover the container 1 tightly, such that houseflies, dust, or any foreign objects could gain access to the stew.